El Sabroso Salsitas Spicy Salsa Chips

[Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of the Blister Random Review series. Our first review was going to be a taste test of five bottles of Sake that we purchased at two convenience stores in Japan, but sadly, we realized that (1) none of us really knew anything about Sake, and (2) it turns out that if you purchase your Sake at a convenience store, odds are good that…the Sake won’t be.

But that night goes down as the funniest of the season. So maybe if enough readers express interest, we’ll put together some of the highlights (lowlights?) of our Sake test and post them up as our next Random Review. And it actually would be sort of a shame to consign some of the comments that night to the dustbin of history, but whatever. Let’s move on.]

Product: 2012 El Sabroso Salsitas Salsa Chips

Flavor: Spicy Salsa

Actual Tip-to-Tail Length (Straight Tape Pull): 5.5 centimeters

Weight Per Chip: 2 grams

Test Location: the drive from Alta, Utah to Santa Fe, New Mexico; all around my house

Bags Consumed: 3 (net weight per bag: 340 grams)

Servings Per Bag: 12

Total Chips Consumed: ~ 510

Total Days Tested: 7

Background

As I was driving back to New Mexico following the final closing day at Alta (Highboy III), I made a fateful stop at the Shell gas station in Wellington, Utah.

This is the same Shell station in Wellington that taught me on one of my road trips last year that nothing is more patriotic than Wireless Accessories:

Step aside, Baseball, Mom, and Apple Pie.

You’ll be happy to know that the sign is still there, in all of its glory.

I was already tired, and I still had another 500 miles in front of me. So I poured myself an enormous coffee, then searched for something I could eat later. Somehow, my decision came down to either some Lays Kettle-cooked BBQ chips, or this red bag I’d never seen before that said, El Sabroso Salsitas Spicy Salsa Chips.

(Someone really needs to do a study on the psychology and buying habits of sleep deprived travelers in gas stations. This review would clearly be relevant.)

By the way, when I was at the checkout counter, the woman at the register told me that in order to complete my debit card transaction, I had to sing, “I’m a little teapot.” So I did. Wellington is kind of an odd place.

According to my receipt, I walked out of the store at 5:47pm with a large coffee and a bag of El Sabrosa Spicy Salsa Chips.

A couple of hundred miles later, I opened the bag.

Initial Impressions

These might be the greatest chips ever.

The gist: These are tortilla chips that already have the guacamole and spicy salsa ‘built-in’ (you know, in the form of seasoning, or “chip dust,” as I prefer to call it). Or, as El Sabroso puts it, “The dip’s in the chip.”

El Sabroso actually copyrighted that phrase (though it’s unclear whether they were able to patent the exact special-blend-chip-dust technology), so good luck finding any other chip with the dip already in it!

Before we go any further, let’s make sure we’re clear on a few facts:

1) Guacamole is the best thing in the world.

2) Spicy guacamole is even better.

3) Guacamole requires a chip delivery-system

And if the good people at El Sabrosa somehow managed to get all three of these things dialed, they would have achieved culinary perfection and expanded the limits of what’s possible.

In short, they have.

As I continued to drive late into the night, I was completely impressed with El Sabroso’s execution. You can even taste the lime in the chip dust.

And more importantly, there actually is a little bit of kick to these “Spicy Salsa” chips—not so much that East Coasters will completely freak out (unfortunately), but there is a mild pop.

I agree with Adam, this is perhaps the most helpful review Blister has done in the last few weeks. I am, in fact, driving up to Denver from Santa Fe this afternoon. I usually stop for gas in one of the fine dining/gourmet fuel stops in Wagon Mound, NM. I SINCERELY hope that these seemingly AMAZING feats of snak engineering are available for retail so that I can test them out for myself (in the future, one additional piece of helpful info might be to include the various retail locations at which such items might be purchased all over the country, not all of us are lucky enough to be passing by such patriotic establishments as this in Wellington). Based on this review, I’ve almost become interested in driving around Santa Fe simply to find them so that I can have an entire 6 hours over which to test their tasty goodness. I especially found the profile photos useful. I like to make sure a chip is good and flat prior to putting it in the pie hole. Thank you for being such a continuous source of reliable and unbiased reviews, keep up the good work.

Thanks for the helpful feedback, Lauren. After I got back from this road trip feeling awful but raving about these chips, BLISTER photographer Ryan Heffernan subsequently found them at Bode’s General Store and Cafe up in Abiquiu, NM, near Ghost Ranch. Ryan takes this as proof that Georgia O’Keefe loved her some Salsitas Spicy Salsa Chips, too.

My friend Bill Reaves then found two bags of these at the Smith’s off of St. Michael’s Drive, but they were their last two bags. I can only hope, for your sake, that they’ve restocked.

As a ski-snack fiend, I very much appreciate the review. However, it would be helpful to offer comparisons to similar snacking delights, particularly for those of us unable to demo locally and must resort to online purchasing.

Obviously, different snacks cater to different snackers. Do you recommend these for a serious snacker, or are they geared towards those sporting a more playful demeanor? For reference, I’m 5’11” and 165#, and lately I have very much enjoyed Dirty’s Mesquite BBQ and Kettle’s Backyard BBQ potato chips. I’m worried that the El Sabroso Salsitas might not be quite burly enough to quell the hunger and keep me out of the backseat (searching for more snacks) while straightlining past the AWD Audis on pow-day mornings.

Believe me, Zak. I searched high and low for comparisons. But I’ve been to the snack mountain top, and all analogies fail.

I thought about alluding to Dionysius the Aeropagite’s Mystical Theology – where all attempts to name the divine invariably fall short – but then I remembered that I was talking about potato chips….

You do, however, raise a fantastic point about different snacks for different snackers. But I assure you: with a 12-serving bag of Salsitas in your lap, you will NOT be searching around in the backseat on a pow morning. (Unless you’re drinking these with coffee and your water bottle is on the floor behind you.)

So please go buy these—online if you must—and report back. I can’t wait for the reader reviews to start trickling in.

I have tried the Salsitas guac chips, Lance, but while I used to think they were great, after discovering the Spicy Salsa chips, they just seem like a shadow of the real thing. That added little kick of the Spicy Salsa chips…it completes me.

This review gave me such a goddamned craving for chips that I sprinted to the nearest Allsups. Alas, there were no El Sabrosos available so I had to settle for Tom’s Ruffles. Which is another way of saying I had to settle for my Ruffles. Keep those units metric!

Just had some of these today from a vending machine at work. I can’t argue with a single point in this review. Also, I’m kind of from the east coast (originally from Texas so I don’t know if this counts) and they were just barely spicy to me. Then again most others that lived around me wouldn’t be able to handle them…

Noticed these exotic looking snacks whilst sitting in an Au Bon Pain in Thailand. Marvelling at the unlikely chance of finding mexican snacks in Central Bangkok, I commited to a quick Google search and came by this amazing review. Needless to say I’m off to buy another bag.

I live in North Carolina and I discovered these late one night at Sheetz in Greenville. These chips are something special. While it’s not of the same cloth, Martins Sour Cream and Onion chips are fantastic as well. Back to the Salsitas….I feel that they really hit the nail on the head with this chip and it seems like I’ve been cut short all of my life after eating these. I get them at least once a week, LOL. But yes, it’s not often you search Google to read about a chip you’ve already eaten; they’re that good.